Claire L. Gaudiani, A Brash And Dynamic

NEW LONDON — Claire L. Gaudiani, a brash and dynamic educator who reinvented the image of a college president in nearly 13 years at Connecticut College, announced an end Friday to her successful, if stormy, tenure.

Just five months after three-quarters of the school's tenured faculty demanded her ouster, Gaudiani has resigned, effective at the end of a spring semester sabbatical on June 30, 2001.

``I thought my work at the college as a change agent was coming to an end,'' a composed and smiling Gaudiani said at press conference with the board of trustees chairman, Duncan N. Dayton.

She will leave Conn College with a burgeoning endowment, a rising reputation among the nation's best liberal arts colleges, applications at an all-time high -- and a restive faculty, exhausted by a dozen years of constant change.

``It was harder working for her than any other president -- and the most rewarding,'' said David K. Lewis, the provost and dean of faculty. Lewis will become acting president Jan. 1, when Gaudiani begins a sabbatical.

Gaudiani, 55, a French literature scholar who speaks English, French and Italian, is a visionary to admirers and a ``steamroller'' to critics, both on the college's picturesque campus and in its grittier hometown

In the semi-cloistered world of academia, where change often comes at a glacial pace, Gaudiani routinely skirted established channels -- especially the traditional system of faculty committees -- as she plunged the college into development partnerships with the city and a major employer, the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc.

Her role as a player in the redevelopment of the city's waterfront, including winning a commitment by Pfizer to build a $280 million research-and-development facility, attracted national press attention. Gaudiani is president of the New London Development Corporation, the quasi-public entity overseeing the renewal of the waterfront.

Along with other college presidents such as Evan S. Dobelle of Hartford's Trinity College, she was seen as a new breed, adept at raising money, building corporate partnerships and turning their institutions into catalysts for urban renewal.

Gaudiani was a rainmaker for her college and her community. The school's endowment more than quintupled from $31 million to $166.5 million during her tenure. The latest fund-raising campaign raised more than $138 million. Grants also poured for New London, including a $2 million federal grant announced Friday for downtown transportation improvements.

The New London Development Corporation had been around for nearly 20 years when state officials targeted the city for redevelopment and asked Gaudiani to take charge.

``It was just lying fallow and making no progress'' before she took over, said David Goebel, the corporation's chief operating officer.

Goebel said Gaudiani's activism has served well both the city and college.

``It's shortsighted to think an academic institution can sit perched on a pinnacle where they're not involved in the community. It's ridiculous,'' he said. ``The college has got to understand they're part of the greater whole. They can't sit there and do nothing. It's foolish. There are some in the college who don't understand that.''

But some of her critics say they are bothered by her style, not her agenda.

``Faculty members and townspeople are both upset about her high- handed management style,'' history Professor Michael A. Burlingame told the Chronicle of Higher Education earlier this year.

Gaudiani and Dayton said her resignation was not related to faculty unrest. In fact, Dayton said, a series of confidential meetings among faculty, trustees and Gaudiani had healed a rift opened in May, when 78 of the college's 105 tenured professors signed a petition demanding her resignation.

``We met through the summer repeatedly,'' Dayton said. ``Through the course of those events, we came to realize that perhaps we were not as far apart as we had originally thought.''

Gaudiani, who adopted an uncharacteristically low profile after the petition was made public, initially said Friday that the episode did not bother her, but then acknowledged it stung: ``Of course. Huge disappointment and huge sadness.''

She said she understood well the traditions and constraints she was testing, the sensibilities she was offending. Faculty members, after all, see themselves as colleagues of college presidents, not underlings. Gaudiani said she respects that.

``If I wanted to be free of that, I would be a CEO in a corporate setting,'' she said. ``You know, this doesn't happen at Pfizer.''